Backups

On Twitter earlier Thursday I joked that Tennessee's top draft pick from last season will soon be known as Jake “Cleaned Out” Locker, in light of how aggressively the Titans are pursuing Peyton Manning. Of course, it would be a shock if the Titans were to trade Locker, the eighth overall pick in the 2011 draft. But the possibility of Manning joining the team -- and, yes, there are several other suitors - does raise interesting questions about what that would mean for Locker's development.

Earl Morrall was the NFL's answer to a brilliant Broadway understudy. He left his mark on NFL history by stepping in for two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks - Johnny Unitas in Baltimore and Bob Griese in Miami - and turning in a string of masterful performances to keep his teams on track. "All Earl ever did was win games for me, whether it was as a starter or coming off the bench," said legendary Miami coach Don Shula, whose 1972 Dolphins finished with an unblemished 17-0 record - the only perfect season in the NFL's modern era - thanks in large part to Morrall.

Clearly and unequivocally, baseball fan and Kings Coach Darryl Sutter once dismissed the notion of a "pitching rotation" when asked about handling his goalies in a 48-game season. Move ahead to April and Sutter has managed goalies Jonathan Quick and Jonathan Bernier with the same aplomb and finesse of, say, pitching guru Roger Craig in his heyday. This is a strategy Ducks' Coach Bruce Boudreau has used as well - and as successfully - with veteran Jonas Hiller and newcomer Viktor Fasth.

Jamal Crawford made a three-point basket from half court to beat the first-quarter buzzer, giving the Clippers a five-point lead, sending the crowd at Staples Center into a frenzy. But that was a short-lived good feeling for Crawford and the rest of the Clippers reserve unit Saturday against the Golden State Warriors during Game 1 of the Western Conference first-round playoff series. The Clippers bench went eight for 30 shooting from the field, scoring only 26 points. "We're trying to find our rhythm," said Crawford, who was two for 11 shooting from the field, one for five from three-point range.

SALT LAKE CITY — Can a bench be benched? Probably not. But the Lakers need to do something about their reserves after having been again pounded by an opponent. Utah won the battle of the backups Wednesday, 36-12, yet another reason the Lakers lost to the Jazz, 95-86. Lakers Coach Mike Brown insisted a day earlier that he still believed in the reserves, saying, "I am confident in the guys. " No reporters asked him about the second unit after Wednesday's game. And if they did, there was no way Brown could have answered with as much conviction.

Goaltender Guy Hebert is expected in camp today, the final arrival from the World Cup. The Ducks are the only NHL team that sent two goalies to the tournament, and since Hebert and Mikhail Shtalenkov were both backups, they're in shape but in need of game action. Ron Wilson--Hebert's coach in Anaheim and with Team USA--would like to put Hebert in the lineup right away for Saturday's exhibition against the New York Rangers in Las Vegas.

Raider officials huddled in a pool-side coffee shop with their St. Louis Cardinal counterparts Monday, trying to land Lionel Washington, a 27-year-old cornerback who had 18 interceptions in his 36 starts before losing his job last season under new Coach Gene Stallings. The Cardinals are asking for a middle-round draft choice. The deal would be contingent on getting Washington to sign a contract. Washington is a left cornerback, the position that Lester Hayes plays.

Football is about tackling, blocking and executing fundamentals, but success also comes from the character of a team's quarterback, which makes Friday's showdown between No. 2 Anaheim Servite (3-0) and No. 6 Huntington Beach Edison (3-0) at Huntington Beach High so intriguing. Forget that Edison's Matt Viles passed for a school-record 485 yards last week against Dana Hills. Forget that Servite's Cody Fajardo has engineered consecutive victories over longtime powers Long Beach Poly, Fresno Clovis West and Encino Crespi.

Forget the geriatric backups, the day belonged to the Atlanta Falcons' Jamal Anderson. Atlanta's Steve DeBerg, 44, the NFL's oldest player, had a marginal advantage over St. Louis Ram backup Steve Bono, 36, in the second half of the Falcons' 21-10 victory Sunday. But Anderson did the heavy work with a career-best 188 yards in 31 carries and a touchdown as the NFC West leaders clinched a playoff berth earlier than they ever have.

Senior Robert Cleary was listed as the starting weakside guard on UCLA's depth chart heading into the season, but by the first game he was a backup to sophomore Chris Joseph. It was a tough blow for a player who had hopes of finishing his college career on a strong note. But instead of sulking, Cleary worked harder than ever and when Joseph suffered a season-ending knee injury against California, he stepped right in.

There is a job to be earned as the UCLA football team heads into its third week of spring practice: understudy to quarterback Brett Hundley. It's not a role a young quarterback dreams about. "We're always competing for a starting job," said Jerry Neuheisel, who will be a sophomore in the fall. "Every year, you start as a clean slate. " Well, not every year. Hundley has thrown for 6,811 yards and rushed for 1,103 the last two seasons. He has been responsible for 53 touchdowns passing, 20 rushing and even one receiving.

Officials at NASA and SpaceX were working through the weekend to see whether they could still safely rocket a cargo capsule to the International Space Station on Monday, despite the failure of one of the backup computers in the system that helps dock the pod in space. While workers continued to prepare for a Monday afternoon launch, NASA said a final determination would likely come Sunday afternoon. The deployment of 5,000 pounds of supplies to the space station by SpaceX's unmanned Falcon 9 rocket has already been delayed a month because of other technical issues.

Chris Kaman started Tuesday's game for one reason. There weren't enough healthy big men for the Lakers against New York. “It's been a long season. I can't wait till it's over,” Kaman said, adding a sigh before officially ending a 10-game sentence at the end of the Lakers' bench. He hasn't enjoyed the month of March. Or, really, this whole season. “The last conversation I've had with Coach [Mike D'Antoni] was in Portland,” three weeks ago, Kaman said. “I didn't really talk to him [Tuesday]

Padres 4, Angels 2 AT THE PLATE: J.B. Shuck, who is competing with Collin Cowgill and Matt Long for a reserve outfield spot, tripled and scored in the first inning and singled in the third and eighth innings. Grant Green hit a sacrifice fly in the first and singled in the sixth. An apparent bunt single by Long in the fifth was overturned by an instant replay process that Manager Mike Scioscia said was "much cleaner" than what he had experienced during previous games. ON THE MOUND: Tyler Skaggs, the 22-year-old left-hander who is expected to be the team's fifth starter, allowed three runs and eight hits, including Nick Hundley's solo homer, in four innings.

On one level, it was no surprise that veteran record company executive Gil Friesen was drawn to the theme of "20 Feet From Stardom," the film about backup singers that won the Oscar for documentary feature Sunday night. Friesen, longtime president of A&M Records, was at a performance by Leonard Cohen in Las Vegas several years ago when he got the idea to explore the question of why support singers who, although tremendously talented, never became stars in their own right. There was a parallel in his own life: Friesen himself was a different breed than high-profile record label heads like Clive Davis, Berry Gordy and Ahmet Ertegun.

Sweden wasn't about to allow the loss of several top players to keep it from its quest for the gold medal. The top-seeded Swedes got one step closer when they defeated Finland, 2-1, in the semifinals of the men's hockey tournament Friday. Sweden will face Canada in the gold-medal game on Sunday. After losing Henrik Sedin and Johan Franzen before the Olympics started and captain Henrik Zetterberg during the Games because of injuries, Sweden hasn't missed a beat. "Even though we lost some players, we had some other players step in and do a really good job," said defenseman Erik Karlsson, who scored the game-winner in the second period.

To college football's elite programs, it's never been simply a question of how they play the game. It's also never been a question of whether they win or lose. The big dogs are going to win -- what matters is by how much. Just ask Temple Coach Ron Dickerson, who led the Owls to State College, Pa., last weekend to face his former boss, Joe Paterno, and the Penn State Nittany Lions. Dickerson and the Owls were thrashed, 66-14 -- and the Nittany Lions moved from No. 7 to No.

Look at it this way, at least now the Dodgers have the threat of power on their bench. Because otherwise, the whole bench is the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid. " Slap hitters, on-base guys, lots of utility guys, but nobody who can actually place a small fear into the opposing manager's heart. Now you can argue just how much power Bobby Abreu actually has left at age 38 -- bet the Angels would -- but it still is going to be more than any of the other backups. Abreu has 284 career home runs -- though only eight last year -- which is 284 more than any Dodgers pinch-hitter this season.

Both teams had five days off for the All-Star break, but clearly the Clippers didn't bring their game back with them and the San Antonio Spurs did. The Spurs were the more energized and efficient team, the Clippers the team that lacked focus and was flat at times. That was a big reason why the Clippers dropped a 113-103 game to the Spurs on Tuesday night at Staples Center. The Spurs had five players score in double figures, led by reserve Patty Mills' 25 points. "I thought they were more ready for the game than we were," Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - The combination of an exhausting trip, a dubious call and the pressure of a road deficit left the Kings yearning to get home and have a chance to right their ways. The overhaul will date to Tuesday night, when the Phoenix Coyotes jumped on their fatigued division rivals, 3-0, at Jobing.com Arena, meaning the Kings have scored one goal in the last 11 periods, losing for the sixth time in seven games. "This homestand's huge for us; look at the Pacific Division standings," Kings center Dustin Brown said.